We often get asked, does responding to google reviews actually help local SEO? And what is the importance of responding to reviews? It’s about time we settle the debate of how reviews help local SEO and rankings once and for all. These days, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Think about it, when was the last time you didn’t read the reviews about a business before visiting for the first time? Reviews impact the success of a business more than most brands realize. When 97% of consumers say reviews influence their buying decision, review management has to be a top priority for every consumer-facing business.

Our inbox has been overflowed with questions about the Google My Business (GMB) API being unable to ingest reviews and publishing in a timely manner. Is this rumor true? No. Here at Chatmeter, all systems are firing and our GMB API integration is still pulling in reviews in real-time.

With so many feature improvements and updates to the algorithm, keeping your business listings optimized on Google Maps might seem overwhelming. Here’s a look at some of the latest feature additions to Google Maps and what you can do to keep your listings optimized no matter what updates occur.

September 27th marks Google’s 20th Birthday. Let’s take a look back at the past year and how Google has influenced local search.

One of the best tools that come with a Google My Business (GMB) listing is Insights. GMB Insights give you a behind the scenes look at how your customers interact with your GMB listings. There is a vast amount of data to be found within Insights, here’s a look at what the data means, how you can use it, and the limitations that come with GMB Insights.

In an effort to compete with Google Maps’ whopping 154.4 million active users each month and 67% market share, Apple Maps is currently in the process of rebuilding. With this complete app overhaul, we’re expecting to see an improvement in both user-base and local listing features.

Labor Day is right around the corner, and 57% of Americans plan to make labor day related purchases. Because of this, Labor Day is the perfect time to give Google Posts a try in order to inform consumers of any deals, discounts or events your business may be having.

When Google Posts first launched in 2016, it didn’t gain much traction, in fact, most of us thought Google would do away with it by the end of the year. Now, 2 years later, Google Posts is headed towards becoming one of the most important pieces of your SEO, VEO™, and overall content strategy.

Google is always updating and improving upon their various features and services. The past few weeks they’ve rolled out some small updates to features that could have a major impact on your local business listings. Take a look at what these changes could mean for your listings.

Google is a dominating force for both organic and local search. Receiving over 3 billion searches daily, It is the most widely used search engine on the internet today. It continues to grow due to its ability to innovate and harness the latest technology in order to improve functionality and enhance the customer experience.